Verdict reached in TCW vs Gundlach: court

Redazione Reuters

2 IN. DI LETTURA

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - The jury has reached a verdict in a courtroom battle between Trust Company of the West and former investment chief Jeffrey Gundlach, concluding a six-week trial that has transfixed the financial industry.

Bond fund manager Jeffrey Gundlach testifies in court in Los Angeles August 11, 2011 in this still image from pool web video. REUTERS/CVN/Pool

The Los Angeles Superior Court jury’s verdict — after just two days of deliberations — will be released Friday morning.

The legal showdown between the “king of bonds” and the unit of French bank Societe Generale (SOGN.PA) had offered an insider’s view into money management firms and the outsized personalities that operate them.

TCW fired Gundlach in December 2009 and sued him a month later, accusing him of stealing trade secrets, plotting to form a new company using TCW proprietary information, and gutting the firm of its entire mortgage-backed securities team.

Gundlach fired back with a counter-lawsuit, alleging his former employer owed him hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation and had secretly plotted to fire him when he was chief investment officer.

The case in Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles is Trust Co of the West v. Jeffrey Gundlach et al, BC429385.